RTI shocker: No provision to penalise professors who goof up while correcting answer sheets

Vihar Durve sought the above information from the University of Mumbai on the number of students who failed an examination due to the errors made by the examiner or moderator and the number of staffers who were punished for committing such errors.

Mumbai Professors who make mistakes while checking university answer sheets cannot be punished for their carelessness. The revelation was made in a reply to a query field by a city-based activist under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

The reply, which that took several months, stated there was no provision under the State Universities Act to take action against professors who made mistakes while correcting answer sheet (HT photo)

Vihar Durve sought the above information from the University of Mumbai on the number of students who failed an examination due to the errors made by the examiner or moderator and the number of staffers who were punished for committing such errors. The reply, which that took several months, stated there was no provision under the State Universities Act to take action against professors who made mistakes while correcting answer sheets.

“I was surprised to find out that not only does the university is clueless about the number of students who have been failed due to an error on the part of the examiner/moderator, but there’s no provision to take action against such professors either. Basically students are the only ones who suffer,” said Durve, adding that he had filed the RTI earlier this year and after receiving no response from the public information officer of MU, he forwarded his request to the first and second appellate authority.

The response from MU stated: “The answer books used during examination have barcodes owing to which the identity of student/s is not revealed to the examiner/s, thereby ensuring objective of secrecy. The examiner/s cannot fail the student/s intentionally/unintentionally. Hence it cannot be said that the examiner/s have “wrongly declared students failed”.

The reply further states that the only disciplinary action that can be initiated is as per section32 (5) (g) of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, where it is mandatory on every examiner to attend the duty of examinations failing which disciplinary action can be initiated.